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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 18, 2026

HousesGate Inc. ("HousesGate," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website at housesgate.com (the "Site") and use our services. This policy is designed to comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation.

By using the Site, you consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information:

a) Account and Registration Data

  • Full name, email address, phone number, and mailing address provided during account registration.
  • Login credentials (passwords are stored in hashed form and are never accessible in plain text).
  • Communication preferences and saved search criteria.

b) VOW Consent Records

  • Records of your acceptance of the Virtual Office Website (VOW) Terms of Use, including timestamps, IP address at the time of consent, and the version of the terms accepted.
  • These records are maintained to satisfy audit and compliance requirements established by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) and the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

c) Technical and Device Data

  • IP address, browser type, browser version, operating system, and user-agent string.
  • Device identifiers, screen resolution, and language preferences.
  • Referring URLs and pages visited on the Site.

d) Usage and Analytics Data

  • Interactions with the Site such as search queries, property views, saved listings, and feature usage patterns.
  • Session duration, click patterns, and navigation paths.

e) Cookies and Similar Technologies

  • We use cookies, local storage, and similar tracking technologies to maintain your session, remember preferences, and gather analytics. See Section 6 for details.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

  • Provide and operate our services: To create and manage your account, deliver property search results, process saved searches, send listing alerts, and facilitate real estate inquiries.
  • VOW compliance: To verify your identity, obtain and record your VOW consent, enforce credential security requirements (such as periodic password changes), and maintain audit trails required by TRREB and CREA.
  • Analytics and improvement: To understand how users interact with the Site, identify usage trends, diagnose technical issues, and improve our services and user experience.
  • Communications: To send you transactional emails (e.g., account verification, password resets, listing alerts), respond to inquiries, and — with your consent — send marketing communications about our services.
  • Cashback program administration: To calculate cashback estimates, process program eligibility, and communicate program updates.
  • Legal and regulatory compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and regulatory board requirements.

3. Third-Party Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

a) TRREB and CREA Compliance Audits

We may be required to provide VOW consent records, user registration data, and access logs to TRREB and/or CREA as part of their compliance audit processes. This disclosure is a regulatory requirement of operating a VOW platform.

b) Service Providers

We engage trusted third-party service providers to help operate the Site and deliver our services, including:

  • Cloud hosting and database infrastructure providers.
  • Email delivery and communication platforms.
  • Analytics and performance monitoring services.
  • Payment processing providers (if applicable).

These providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and may only use it for the purposes we specify.

c) Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information where required by law, court order, subpoena, or governmental or regulatory request, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.

d) Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change via email or a prominent notice on the Site.

4. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specifically:

  • Account data: Retained for the duration of your account and for a reasonable period thereafter to satisfy legal, regulatory, and business requirements.
  • VOW consent records: Retained for a minimum period as required by TRREB audit requirements and applicable regulations. These records may be retained beyond account deletion to satisfy regulatory obligations.
  • Usage and analytics data: Retained in aggregated or anonymized form and may be kept indefinitely for analytical purposes.
  • Communications: Records of communications with you are retained for brokerage record-keeping and regulatory compliance purposes.

5. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

  • Encryption of data in transit (TLS/SSL) and at rest.
  • Secure password hashing and storage.
  • Access controls and authentication for internal systems.
  • Regular security assessments and monitoring.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use the following types of cookies and similar technologies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies: Required for the Site to function, including session management and authentication.
  • Functional cookies: Remember your preferences, saved searches, and display settings.
  • Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with the Site, which pages are most popular, and how to improve the user experience. We may use third-party analytics providers for this purpose.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the Site, including access to VOW features that require authentication.

7. Your Rights

Under PIPEDA and applicable privacy legislation, you have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

  • Access: You may request access to the personal information we hold about you.
  • Correction: You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
  • Deletion: You may request that we delete your personal information, subject to our obligation to retain certain records for regulatory compliance (including VOW consent records required by TRREB and brokerage records required by RECO).
  • Withdrawal of consent: You may withdraw your consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. Withdrawal of consent may result in the inability to access certain features of the Site.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond to your request within 30 days, as required by PIPEDA.

8. PIPEDA Compliance

HousesGate is committed to complying with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and its ten Fair Information Principles:

  • Accountability
  • Identifying Purposes
  • Consent
  • Limiting Collection
  • Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention
  • Accuracy
  • Safeguards
  • Openness
  • Individual Access
  • Challenging Compliance

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our compliance with PIPEDA. If you believe we have not handled your personal information properly, you may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at www.priv.gc.ca.

9. Children's Privacy

The Site is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 18 without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly. If you believe we may have collected information from a child under 18, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes, we will update the "Effective Date" at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

HousesGate Inc.
Privacy Officer
Email: [email protected]
Toronto, Ontario, Canada